I'very been to a few AB's and the art show is something I always like to peruse. I see there's always some space in there and was debating on entering a few pieces (ie:1 to 3 plushies it's i've made). This is mostly to get an idea if people like them or not and if they do, what they're willing to pay. I just have a couple questions before taking the plunge.

1. My biggest question: If submitting plushies, should they be made with our own patterns or can we use patterns put online by others that they have labeled as free for personal and paid work?
2. Can popular or liscensed characters/monsters/critters be entered or should they be originals?
3. Anime style characters/art only or are north American series characters allowed?

I'm asking mostly because I looked around the forums a bit and didn'the see these asked/answered. Also because I was debating on entering one of the MLP plushies I've made and I know in some areas of the net there's a bit of a debate over them (in the past at least) and I'd like to try and stear clear of most that for all parties, lol. (Also feel free to add questions below, lock or move this thread if need be )

I asked Kristen in the Art Show to take a look over the rules page before we put it up. Currently, on that page, we've got 'Subject matter for all works should be drawn from the styles of Japanese culture including, but not limited to, manga and anime.'

Patterns are a bit weird. I know something like clothing patterns can't be copyrighted, not sure about stuff like plush dolls. Usually, it's easier to figure if there's going to be 'marketplace confusion' and whether a person would potentially confuse something for someone else's licensed characters. However, at like single-piece level, like as a show of craftsmanship, the consideration is a bit different for me. At the same time, I'm still going to point to the line I mentioned above.

Ah, I see. Thank you. I was wondering a lot on some of these things. If they should be inspirationally drawn from anime/Manga even if in fan art form, the plushies I was considering are from MLP, Undertale, and 5 Nights at Freddies, which are decidedly not anime/manga/Japanese games/etc. I'll wait for the rules to go up before ultimately deciding, but I have a feeling that I'll end up being lazy about it and not enter.

Undertale is a bit odd, because I've seen multiple sources saying no fan art/ product is allowed, while other sources say anything that is not produced in numbers is alright, meaning a hand made plushy would fall under alright. I'll have to look into it more.

We've had MLP and Five Nights at Freddie's plushies in the art show before so those should be fine.

Yeah, Undertale specifically has been weird. The main person behind that game was pretty down on all fan art for a while and has softened up on some stuff. The one thing that they've made really clear is like 'nothing mechanically reproduced', so like shirts, prints, etc. If it's just one plush doll made by hand, it should be fine with everyone involved.

Hmm, so from the sounds of it, my three little plush it's could be ok. The Undertale plush in is a monster named Astigmatism (I work in the optical field lol) and honestly the first time a friend saw it they said I should have just made it a Gengar instead. Either way, what's the worst that can happen? The applications get rejected? Lol. I can live with that. Not the end of the world. Either way, I can't wait to see the show this year.